Teaching can be a Funny Business.

I just returned from two weeks on the road, mostly teaching RDS pistol and carbine. I met some great people and had a wonderful time. I shot a little, socialized a lot, and learned a fair bit. Can’t ask for much better than that.

Some of the things I learned reinforced my preferences for how I teach. Things like there are no shortcuts, and bandaid solutions to shooter problems are not the way to go. If you want to shoot better, especially with an RDS pistol, perfect your mechanics. It will pay dividends, well beyond learning to find your dot. Perfecting your mechanics takes two forms: fast and furious, and slow and perfect. If you only use one of these paths, you are decreasing your potential gains. More importantly, your students will suffer. Not every problem is a nail, you have to work with what you are presented with, not what you might wish for.

Other things I learned reinforced my belief that if you have a small enough sample size, anything can look great. Another way of saying that is, if your sample size is big enough, you will see problems that the rest of the world does not. In this case, I’m thinking about guns, but the same applies to optics and ammo and everything else, of course.

The final point I will mention has to do with how we deal with our students. If you are yelling at them or belittling them, then you need to find a better form of communication, or maybe another line of work. Adults teaching adults does not work if they know you don’t care and have no meaningful expertise to offer. Along those lines, if you can’t or won’t demonstrate in front of the class, go work on your skills until you can. There is pretty much nothing in shooting that isn’t taught better when they can see you do it first.

As far as students go, I don’t care what unit you came from or how well you think you shoot. Stay humble and keep an open mind or you will not get any better. And everyone can get better, usually a lot better. The flip side to that is if you have no skill, and you want a job carrying a gun, you’d better build some strength and endurance, and you’d better apply yourself with a great attitude, or you too will not get better. As instructors, our job is to give you everything we have to allow you to practice and get as good as you can. If we have to push you to the water trough, you simply won’t get very good. Better to be led willingly.

BTW, congratulations to JAG, she was nominated to the Gundies, so jump over there and vote for her!